WNM week 5 - Prairie Roots

I am so very proud of you, Lee who does understand
Prairie Roots wrote in message
...
Thanks Lee. When I lived in California, my home was broken into a
couple of times and my purse stolen a handful of times. Each time felt
like a violation. This incident was the first since moving back to
Minnesota. Knowing that someone was snooping around my bedroom brought
up a lot of old feelings. That I was able to cry it out in one night
and wake up the next morning determined not to feel like a victim is a
sign for me of just how much recovery progress I've made. Life's too
short and wonderful to let some jerk ruin what I've worked hard to
achieve.

On Sat, 1 May 2004 19:30:16 -0500, "Miss Violette"
wrote:

I am so sorry, theft like this is a major violation. You are right to
take
a major NSV, take two in fact, take one for not eating, and take one for
not
letting the bad guy take your wonderful experience, I am so glad no one
was
physically hurt, Lee
Prairie Roots wrote in message
.. .
My current weight: 146 lbs
Weight change since my last recorded weight: -1 lbs
Total weight change to date: -86 lbs

Miracle of miracles, I didn't regain any of last week's whoosh!
Instead, I'm down another lb. I'm only 1 lb away from reaching my WW
weight loss goal. The biggest miracle is that I don't feel like
stopping! I know I'm carrying more than loose skin around my middle
section. I've decided to go out on a limb and set my personal goal
weight at 126. Since I don't recall ever being that weight or staying
there, and I haven't been normal weight since elementary school, I
don't actually know what my ideal weight is. I've used some
calculators that put my ideal weight at 123. My doctor in high school
said I should weigh 120. With that in mind, 126 seems at the high end
of what's possible. As usual, though, between now and then, I'll focus
on reaching one mini-goal at a time.

Construction is winding down. All the big stuff and most of the little
stuff is done. There have been a few mistakes, wrong cabinet doors
ordered for example, but they're being rectified. Monday & Tuesday
will be final touchups--I'm supposed to write a punchlist this
weekend--and some minor repair work I'd contracted. Then they'll pull
up the carpet on the main floor, something they offered to do at no
charge, and let me know if my floors can be refinished or if I should
just recarpet.

One major mishap occurred this week. My house was broken into sometime
during the day on Wednesday. I noticed a few odd things when I got
home from work Wednesday evening, but didn't think too much of what I
was seeing. When you've got construction people coming in and out of
your house all the time, you kinda expect the unexpected. On Thursday
morning, though, after my carpenter arrived and I began discussing
things with him, it became more and more apparent that the weird
things weren't related at all to anyone doing work at my house on
Wednesday. In fact, no one worked inside my house on Wednesday.
Finally, when I opened the door to leave, I saw that the lockbox was
gone and the doorknob broken off. That's when everything clicked, and
I realized the weird things I'd noticed were not the result of
paranormal activity.

Turns out that the guy who had been setting my bathroom tile got fired
on Tuesday morning. On Monday, after he left and the others left, I
discovered his grinder had been left behind. At the time, I didn't
think anything of it, there are so many tools and equipment lying
around. I figure that once this guy realized he left his grinder here,
he decided to come and get it. When he saw that no one was here
working, he got angry, and decided he was entitled to retrieve his
equipment, no matter the means. Once inside, he helped himself to a
few more things than just the items that belonged to him. My digital
camera is gone, so is my DVD player, a bunch of audio CDs are missing,
and a jar of change was emptied.

I was pretty upset Thursday night, and spent much of the evening
crying. More than the loss of any material objects, I resented that
the one, truly precious thing that had been stolen was the wonderful
experience this project has been for me. Here's the amazing thing
though. All the while that I was upset and crying and being angry and
crying and grieving and crying, I was cleaning my house: vacuuming and
dusting and washing and polishing and straightening. Not eating.
Cleaning. Unless you're a messie or a flybaby (a la www.flylady.net),
you have no idea how strange and unusual this behavior is for me. I'm
going to claim a major NSV right here. You see, I tend to have two
physical response to emotions: crying or eating or both. This time,
though, instead of crying and eating, I cried and cleaned and cleaned
and cried. Eating didn't even occur to me. Even if that's a one-time
occurrence, I'm ecstatic it happened this once.

Early Friday morning, the president of the construction company came
to my house to meet me and offer his apologies and concern. I took the
rest of the day off to get my bearings again and to make sure nothing
else was missing. The company president called to ask that I send him
an itemized list of things missing and their costs. Today he's coming
by to talk with me more and to offer me payment for the items lost.
He's also making arrangements to inspect the work this guy did and to
correct anything that might be wrong with it. And he's agreed that the
only two people allowed access to my house are the carpenter and the
project manager. No more lockbox on the front door. No one else gets
in or stays here without one of them being here, if I'm not. I have to
say, the company is making things right.

After spending Friday at home, I'm all right too. I decided I wasn't
going to let that guy take anything away from this experience. Crazy
stuff happens. Some guy got angry and needed to hurt someone. My house
happened to be the handiest target. I'm going to be happy and grateful
ANYWAY. My house has been transformed beyond my imagination. My
kitchen looks better than any magazine. My bathroom looks like a
spread in the Pottery Barn catalog. My dog is well. My bike is still
here and intact. No one was hurt. All is well.

It's the best day of my life!
--
Linda P
week 62: 232/146/WW goal 145/personal goal 126?
WNM week 5: 155.6/146/145
next mini-goals: 145 (WW goal); 142 (90 lbs total loss); 141 (15 lbs
to goal)
started WW 22-Feb-2003 | 10% target: 1-May-2003
5'4" | 50 | F

Congrats on the loss. You are an inspiration to me as you have shown eating
isn't the answer to stress. Now if I can only convince myself of that!
Please post pictures of your remodel when you get caught up with everything.
Betty
"Miss Violette" wrote in message
...
I am so very proud of you, Lee who does understand
Prairie Roots wrote in message
...
Thanks Lee. When I lived in California, my home was broken into a
couple of times and my purse stolen a handful of times. Each time felt
like a violation. This incident was the first since moving back to
Minnesota. Knowing that someone was snooping around my bedroom brought
up a lot of old feelings. That I was able to cry it out in one night
and wake up the next morning determined not to feel like a victim is a
sign for me of just how much recovery progress I've made. Life's too
short and wonderful to let some jerk ruin what I've worked hard to
achieve.

On Sat, 1 May 2004 19:30:16 -0500, "Miss Violette"
wrote:

I am so sorry, theft like this is a major violation. You are right to
take
a major NSV, take two in fact, take one for not eating, and take one
for
not
letting the bad guy take your wonderful experience, I am so glad no
one
was
physically hurt, Lee
Prairie Roots wrote in message
.. .
My current weight: 146 lbs
Weight change since my last recorded weight: -1 lbs
Total weight change to date: -86 lbs

Miracle of miracles, I didn't regain any of last week's whoosh!
Instead, I'm down another lb. I'm only 1 lb away from reaching my WW
weight loss goal. The biggest miracle is that I don't feel like
stopping! I know I'm carrying more than loose skin around my middle
section. I've decided to go out on a limb and set my personal goal
weight at 126. Since I don't recall ever being that weight or staying
there, and I haven't been normal weight since elementary school, I
don't actually know what my ideal weight is. I've used some
calculators that put my ideal weight at 123. My doctor in high school
said I should weigh 120. With that in mind, 126 seems at the high end
of what's possible. As usual, though, between now and then, I'll
focus
on reaching one mini-goal at a time.

Construction is winding down. All the big stuff and most of the
little
stuff is done. There have been a few mistakes, wrong cabinet doors
ordered for example, but they're being rectified. Monday & Tuesday
will be final touchups--I'm supposed to write a punchlist this
weekend--and some minor repair work I'd contracted. Then they'll pull
up the carpet on the main floor, something they offered to do at no
charge, and let me know if my floors can be refinished or if I should
just recarpet.

One major mishap occurred this week. My house was broken into
sometime
during the day on Wednesday. I noticed a few odd things when I got
home from work Wednesday evening, but didn't think too much of what I
was seeing. When you've got construction people coming in and out of
your house all the time, you kinda expect the unexpected. On Thursday
morning, though, after my carpenter arrived and I began discussing
things with him, it became more and more apparent that the weird
things weren't related at all to anyone doing work at my house on
Wednesday. In fact, no one worked inside my house on Wednesday.
Finally, when I opened the door to leave, I saw that the lockbox was
gone and the doorknob broken off. That's when everything clicked, and
I realized the weird things I'd noticed were not the result of
paranormal activity.

Turns out that the guy who had been setting my bathroom tile got
fired
on Tuesday morning. On Monday, after he left and the others left, I
discovered his grinder had been left behind. At the time, I didn't
think anything of it, there are so many tools and equipment lying
around. I figure that once this guy realized he left his grinder
here,
he decided to come and get it. When he saw that no one was here
working, he got angry, and decided he was entitled to retrieve his
equipment, no matter the means. Once inside, he helped himself to a
few more things than just the items that belonged to him. My digital
camera is gone, so is my DVD player, a bunch of audio CDs are
missing,
and a jar of change was emptied.

I was pretty upset Thursday night, and spent much of the evening
crying. More than the loss of any material objects, I resented that
the one, truly precious thing that had been stolen was the wonderful
experience this project has been for me. Here's the amazing thing
though. All the while that I was upset and crying and being angry and
crying and grieving and crying, I was cleaning my house: vacuuming
and
dusting and washing and polishing and straightening. Not eating.
Cleaning. Unless you're a messie or a flybaby (a la www.flylady.net),
you have no idea how strange and unusual this behavior is for me. I'm
going to claim a major NSV right here. You see, I tend to have two
physical response to emotions: crying or eating or both. This time,
though, instead of crying and eating, I cried and cleaned and cleaned
and cried. Eating didn't even occur to me. Even if that's a one-time
occurrence, I'm ecstatic it happened this once.

Early Friday morning, the president of the construction company came
to my house to meet me and offer his apologies and concern. I took
the
rest of the day off to get my bearings again and to make sure nothing
else was missing. The company president called to ask that I send him
an itemized list of things missing and their costs. Today he's coming
by to talk with me more and to offer me payment for the items lost.
He's also making arrangements to inspect the work this guy did and to
correct anything that might be wrong with it. And he's agreed that
the
only two people allowed access to my house are the carpenter and the
project manager. No more lockbox on the front door. No one else gets
in or stays here without one of them being here, if I'm not. I have
to
say, the company is making things right.

After spending Friday at home, I'm all right too. I decided I wasn't
going to let that guy take anything away from this experience. Crazy
stuff happens. Some guy got angry and needed to hurt someone. My
house
happened to be the handiest target. I'm going to be happy and
grateful
ANYWAY. My house has been transformed beyond my imagination. My
kitchen looks better than any magazine. My bathroom looks like a
spread in the Pottery Barn catalog. My dog is well. My bike is still
here and intact. No one was hurt. All is well.

It's the best day of my life!
--
Linda P
week 62: 232/146/WW goal 145/personal goal 126?
WNM week 5: 155.6/146/145
next mini-goals: 145 (WW goal); 142 (90 lbs total loss); 141 (15 lbs
to goal)
started WW 22-Feb-2003 | 10% target: 1-May-2003
5'4" | 50 | F

Not eating due to stress isn't good either!! A balanced diet is what we
are striving for!! You can do it!!

--

Cheers,

Connie Walsh

241.5/190/155
WNM 193.5/190/181.5
30 lbs to go 191.5/190/185

Prairie Roots wrote:
Thanks Connie. I just returned home from shopping to replace my
camera. That was the most distressing loss because I was sending
pictures of the work to my daughters every night. Losing that felt
like I was losing touch with them somehow.

Something very strange is going on with me. I just haven't felt like
eating lately. Like today, I ate breakfast, but got too busy with
other things to eat lunch. Now it's almost 8 pm. I'm going to have to
make myself eat something. In the past, I've eaten to relieve stress.
If I'm changing to NOT eating due to stress, I won't know what to make
of that. That's not the way I want to get rid of the last 21 lbs. I'm
fully prepared to go another 20 weeks or longer.

On Sat, 01 May 2004 14:13:20 -0400, Connie
wrote:


Oh Linda, I'm so proud of you for not letting that angry guy colour your
great experience of getting your house redone!! And the NSV of cleaning
when you were so upset was just incredible!!

Congrats on losing a pound this week. It's great that you have picked
your goal weight!! 20 more lbs at the rate you are going now should be
fairly quick!!

I can only hope that's the case. Time will tell. Once everything here
is final--all the construction equipment out, my furniture put back,
and my kitchen items brought up from the basement and put into their
new homes--only then will I know for sure if stress has anything to do
with my lack of desire to eat or I've made the kind of switch you
refer to.

On Sun, 02 May 2004 02:07:32 GMT, "Laura"
wrote:

Could it be that food is no longer a critical thing in your life right now?
Have you gone from "Living to eat" to "eating to live" in your new WW WOL?

"Prairie Roots" wrote in message
.. .
Thanks Connie. I just returned home from shopping to replace my
camera. That was the most distressing loss because I was sending
pictures of the work to my daughters every night. Losing that felt
like I was losing touch with them somehow.

Something very strange is going on with me. I just haven't felt like
eating lately. Like today, I ate breakfast, but got too busy with
other things to eat lunch. Now it's almost 8 pm. I'm going to have to
make myself eat something. In the past, I've eaten to relieve stress.
If I'm changing to NOT eating due to stress, I won't know what to make
of that. That's not the way I want to get rid of the last 21 lbs. I'm
fully prepared to go another 20 weeks or longer.

On Sat, 01 May 2004 14:13:20 -0400, Connie
wrote:

Oh Linda, I'm so proud of you for not letting that angry guy colour your
great experience of getting your house redone!! And the NSV of cleaning
when you were so upset was just incredible!!

Congrats on losing a pound this week. It's great that you have picked
your goal weight!! 20 more lbs at the rate you are going now should be
fairly quick!!

Going from one extreme to the other isn't right as both are unhealthy.
I'm not worried about it yet, since not eating is definitely out of
the ordinary for me. But I will watch it. Today I'm ending up about 3
points shy of 20. That's OK. Tomorrow my mom's coming over for dinner;
I'll today's banked points then.

On Sat, 1 May 2004 21:30:25 -0500, "Miss Violette"
wrote:

watch this very carefully, I do not eat when stressed and it can really play
heck with your system, go points dense and make sure you get twenty points,
and move on, Lee
Prairie Roots wrote in message
.. .
Thanks Connie. I just returned home from shopping to replace my
camera. That was the most distressing loss because I was sending
pictures of the work to my daughters every night. Losing that felt
like I was losing touch with them somehow.

Something very strange is going on with me. I just haven't felt like
eating lately. Like today, I ate breakfast, but got too busy with
other things to eat lunch. Now it's almost 8 pm. I'm going to have to
make myself eat something. In the past, I've eaten to relieve stress.
If I'm changing to NOT eating due to stress, I won't know what to make
of that. That's not the way I want to get rid of the last 21 lbs. I'm
fully prepared to go another 20 weeks or longer.

On Sat, 01 May 2004 14:13:20 -0400, Connie
wrote:

Oh Linda, I'm so proud of you for not letting that angry guy colour your
great experience of getting your house redone!! And the NSV of cleaning
when you were so upset was just incredible!!

Congrats on losing a pound this week. It's great that you have picked
your goal weight!! 20 more lbs at the rate you are going now should be
fairly quick!!

Thanks Betty. Now that I've got a camera again, I'll be able to take
my own "After" pictures. My carpenter took "Before" pictures prior to
the start of demolition, something I couldn't bring myself to do. I'm
sure I'll be horrified when I see them. He's also burning a CD-ROM for
me of the in-progress pictures he took, so I'll have lots to choose
from.

On Sun, 02 May 2004 02:53:52 GMT, "betty boop"
wrote:

Congrats on the loss. You are an inspiration to me as you have shown eating
isn't the answer to stress. Now if I can only convince myself of that!
Please post pictures of your remodel when you get caught up with everything.
Betty
"Miss Violette" wrote in message
...
I am so very proud of you, Lee who does understand
Prairie Roots wrote in message
...
Thanks Lee. When I lived in California, my home was broken into a
couple of times and my purse stolen a handful of times. Each time felt
like a violation. This incident was the first since moving back to
Minnesota. Knowing that someone was snooping around my bedroom brought
up a lot of old feelings. That I was able to cry it out in one night
and wake up the next morning determined not to feel like a victim is a
sign for me of just how much recovery progress I've made. Life's too
short and wonderful to let some jerk ruin what I've worked hard to
achieve.

On Sat, 1 May 2004 19:30:16 -0500, "Miss Violette"
wrote:

I am so sorry, theft like this is a major violation. You are right to
take
a major NSV, take two in fact, take one for not eating, and take one
for
not
letting the bad guy take your wonderful experience, I am so glad no
one
was
physically hurt, Lee
Prairie Roots wrote in message
.. .
My current weight: 146 lbs
Weight change since my last recorded weight: -1 lbs
Total weight change to date: -86 lbs

Miracle of miracles, I didn't regain any of last week's whoosh!
Instead, I'm down another lb. I'm only 1 lb away from reaching my WW
weight loss goal. The biggest miracle is that I don't feel like
stopping! I know I'm carrying more than loose skin around my middle
section. I've decided to go out on a limb and set my personal goal
weight at 126. Since I don't recall ever being that weight or staying
there, and I haven't been normal weight since elementary school, I
don't actually know what my ideal weight is. I've used some
calculators that put my ideal weight at 123. My doctor in high school
said I should weigh 120. With that in mind, 126 seems at the high end
of what's possible. As usual, though, between now and then, I'll
focus
on reaching one mini-goal at a time.

Construction is winding down. All the big stuff and most of the
little
stuff is done. There have been a few mistakes, wrong cabinet doors
ordered for example, but they're being rectified. Monday & Tuesday
will be final touchups--I'm supposed to write a punchlist this
weekend--and some minor repair work I'd contracted. Then they'll pull
up the carpet on the main floor, something they offered to do at no
charge, and let me know if my floors can be refinished or if I should
just recarpet.

One major mishap occurred this week. My house was broken into
sometime
during the day on Wednesday. I noticed a few odd things when I got
home from work Wednesday evening, but didn't think too much of what I
was seeing. When you've got construction people coming in and out of
your house all the time, you kinda expect the unexpected. On Thursday
morning, though, after my carpenter arrived and I began discussing
things with him, it became more and more apparent that the weird
things weren't related at all to anyone doing work at my house on
Wednesday. In fact, no one worked inside my house on Wednesday.
Finally, when I opened the door to leave, I saw that the lockbox was
gone and the doorknob broken off. That's when everything clicked, and
I realized the weird things I'd noticed were not the result of
paranormal activity.

Turns out that the guy who had been setting my bathroom tile got
fired
on Tuesday morning. On Monday, after he left and the others left, I
discovered his grinder had been left behind. At the time, I didn't
think anything of it, there are so many tools and equipment lying
around. I figure that once this guy realized he left his grinder
here,
he decided to come and get it. When he saw that no one was here
working, he got angry, and decided he was entitled to retrieve his
equipment, no matter the means. Once inside, he helped himself to a
few more things than just the items that belonged to him. My digital
camera is gone, so is my DVD player, a bunch of audio CDs are
missing,
and a jar of change was emptied.

I was pretty upset Thursday night, and spent much of the evening
crying. More than the loss of any material objects, I resented that
the one, truly precious thing that had been stolen was the wonderful
experience this project has been for me. Here's the amazing thing
though. All the while that I was upset and crying and being angry and
crying and grieving and crying, I was cleaning my house: vacuuming
and
dusting and washing and polishing and straightening. Not eating.
Cleaning. Unless you're a messie or a flybaby (a la www.flylady.net),
you have no idea how strange and unusual this behavior is for me. I'm
going to claim a major NSV right here. You see, I tend to have two
physical response to emotions: crying or eating or both. This time,
though, instead of crying and eating, I cried and cleaned and cleaned
and cried. Eating didn't even occur to me. Even if that's a one-time
occurrence, I'm ecstatic it happened this once.

Early Friday morning, the president of the construction company came
to my house to meet me and offer his apologies and concern. I took
the
rest of the day off to get my bearings again and to make sure nothing
else was missing. The company president called to ask that I send him
an itemized list of things missing and their costs. Today he's coming
by to talk with me more and to offer me payment for the items lost.
He's also making arrangements to inspect the work this guy did and to
correct anything that might be wrong with it. And he's agreed that
the
only two people allowed access to my house are the carpenter and the
project manager. No more lockbox on the front door. No one else gets
in or stays here without one of them being here, if I'm not. I have
to
say, the company is making things right.

After spending Friday at home, I'm all right too. I decided I wasn't
going to let that guy take anything away from this experience. Crazy
stuff happens. Some guy got angry and needed to hurt someone. My
house
happened to be the handiest target. I'm going to be happy and
grateful
ANYWAY. My house has been transformed beyond my imagination. My
kitchen looks better than any magazine. My bathroom looks like a
spread in the Pottery Barn catalog. My dog is well. My bike is still
here and intact. No one was hurt. All is well.

It's the best day of my life!
--
Linda P
week 62: 232/146/WW goal 145/personal goal 126?
WNM week 5: 155.6/146/145
next mini-goals: 145 (WW goal); 142 (90 lbs total loss); 141 (15 lbs
to goal)
started WW 22-Feb-2003 | 10% target: 1-May-2003
5'4" | 50 | F

As someone who's had her own road to travel, you know it! Thanks.

On Sun, 02 May 2004 02:08:14 GMT, "Laura"
wrote:

You've come a long way baby!

"Prairie Roots" wrote in message
.. .
Thanks Lee. When I lived in California, my home was broken into a
couple of times and my purse stolen a handful of times. Each time felt
like a violation. This incident was the first since moving back to
Minnesota. Knowing that someone was snooping around my bedroom brought
up a lot of old feelings. That I was able to cry it out in one night
and wake up the next morning determined not to feel like a victim is a
sign for me of just how much recovery progress I've made. Life's too
short and wonderful to let some jerk ruin what I've worked hard to
achieve.

On Sat, 1 May 2004 19:30:16 -0500, "Miss Violette"
wrote:

I am so sorry, theft like this is a major violation. You are right to
take
a major NSV, take two in fact, take one for not eating, and take one for
not
letting the bad guy take your wonderful experience, I am so glad no one
was
physically hurt, Lee
Prairie Roots wrote in message
.. .
My current weight: 146 lbs
Weight change since my last recorded weight: -1 lbs
Total weight change to date: -86 lbs

Miracle of miracles, I didn't regain any of last week's whoosh!
Instead, I'm down another lb. I'm only 1 lb away from reaching my WW
weight loss goal. The biggest miracle is that I don't feel like
stopping! I know I'm carrying more than loose skin around my middle
section. I've decided to go out on a limb and set my personal goal
weight at 126. Since I don't recall ever being that weight or staying
there, and I haven't been normal weight since elementary school, I
don't actually know what my ideal weight is. I've used some
calculators that put my ideal weight at 123. My doctor in high school
said I should weigh 120. With that in mind, 126 seems at the high end
of what's possible. As usual, though, between now and then, I'll focus
on reaching one mini-goal at a time.

Construction is winding down. All the big stuff and most of the little
stuff is done. There have been a few mistakes, wrong cabinet doors
ordered for example, but they're being rectified. Monday & Tuesday
will be final touchups--I'm supposed to write a punchlist this
weekend--and some minor repair work I'd contracted. Then they'll pull
up the carpet on the main floor, something they offered to do at no
charge, and let me know if my floors can be refinished or if I should
just recarpet.

One major mishap occurred this week. My house was broken into sometime
during the day on Wednesday. I noticed a few odd things when I got
home from work Wednesday evening, but didn't think too much of what I
was seeing. When you've got construction people coming in and out of
your house all the time, you kinda expect the unexpected. On Thursday
morning, though, after my carpenter arrived and I began discussing
things with him, it became more and more apparent that the weird
things weren't related at all to anyone doing work at my house on
Wednesday. In fact, no one worked inside my house on Wednesday.
Finally, when I opened the door to leave, I saw that the lockbox was
gone and the doorknob broken off. That's when everything clicked, and
I realized the weird things I'd noticed were not the result of
paranormal activity.

Turns out that the guy who had been setting my bathroom tile got fired
on Tuesday morning. On Monday, after he left and the others left, I
discovered his grinder had been left behind. At the time, I didn't
think anything of it, there are so many tools and equipment lying
around. I figure that once this guy realized he left his grinder here,
he decided to come and get it. When he saw that no one was here
working, he got angry, and decided he was entitled to retrieve his
equipment, no matter the means. Once inside, he helped himself to a
few more things than just the items that belonged to him. My digital
camera is gone, so is my DVD player, a bunch of audio CDs are missing,
and a jar of change was emptied.

I was pretty upset Thursday night, and spent much of the evening
crying. More than the loss of any material objects, I resented that
the one, truly precious thing that had been stolen was the wonderful
experience this project has been for me. Here's the amazing thing
though. All the while that I was upset and crying and being angry and
crying and grieving and crying, I was cleaning my house: vacuuming and
dusting and washing and polishing and straightening. Not eating.
Cleaning. Unless you're a messie or a flybaby (a la www.flylady.net),
you have no idea how strange and unusual this behavior is for me. I'm
going to claim a major NSV right here. You see, I tend to have two
physical response to emotions: crying or eating or both. This time,
though, instead of crying and eating, I cried and cleaned and cleaned
and cried. Eating didn't even occur to me. Even if that's a one-time
occurrence, I'm ecstatic it happened this once.

Early Friday morning, the president of the construction company came
to my house to meet me and offer his apologies and concern. I took the
rest of the day off to get my bearings again and to make sure nothing
else was missing. The company president called to ask that I send him
an itemized list of things missing and their costs. Today he's coming
by to talk with me more and to offer me payment for the items lost.
He's also making arrangements to inspect the work this guy did and to
correct anything that might be wrong with it. And he's agreed that the
only two people allowed access to my house are the carpenter and the
project manager. No more lockbox on the front door. No one else gets
in or stays here without one of them being here, if I'm not. I have to
say, the company is making things right.

After spending Friday at home, I'm all right too. I decided I wasn't
going to let that guy take anything away from this experience. Crazy
stuff happens. Some guy got angry and needed to hurt someone. My house
happened to be the handiest target. I'm going to be happy and grateful
ANYWAY. My house has been transformed beyond my imagination. My
kitchen looks better than any magazine. My bathroom looks like a
spread in the Pottery Barn catalog. My dog is well. My bike is still
here and intact. No one was hurt. All is well.

It's the best day of my life!
--
Linda P
week 62: 232/146/WW goal 145/personal goal 126?
WNM week 5: 155.6/146/145
next mini-goals: 145 (WW goal); 142 (90 lbs total loss); 141 (15 lbs
to goal)
started WW 22-Feb-2003 | 10% target: 1-May-2003
5'4" | 50 | F

Thanks Lee. I figured just about everyone here would understand on
some level. So glad to know I'm not alone. So glad to know I don't
have to spell everything out, because even though our stories may
differ, you've all "been there done that."

On Sat, 1 May 2004 21:32:16 -0500, "Miss Violette"
wrote:

I am so very proud of you, Lee who does understand
Prairie Roots wrote in message
.. .
Thanks Lee. When I lived in California, my home was broken into a
couple of times and my purse stolen a handful of times. Each time felt
like a violation. This incident was the first since moving back to
Minnesota. Knowing that someone was snooping around my bedroom brought
up a lot of old feelings. That I was able to cry it out in one night
and wake up the next morning determined not to feel like a victim is a
sign for me of just how much recovery progress I've made. Life's too
short and wonderful to let some jerk ruin what I've worked hard to
achieve.

On Sat, 1 May 2004 19:30:16 -0500, "Miss Violette"
wrote:

I am so sorry, theft like this is a major violation. You are right to
take
a major NSV, take two in fact, take one for not eating, and take one for
not
letting the bad guy take your wonderful experience, I am so glad no one
was
physically hurt, Lee
Prairie Roots wrote in message
.. .
My current weight: 146 lbs
Weight change since my last recorded weight: -1 lbs
Total weight change to date: -86 lbs

Miracle of miracles, I didn't regain any of last week's whoosh!
Instead, I'm down another lb. I'm only 1 lb away from reaching my WW
weight loss goal. The biggest miracle is that I don't feel like
stopping! I know I'm carrying more than loose skin around my middle
section. I've decided to go out on a limb and set my personal goal
weight at 126. Since I don't recall ever being that weight or staying
there, and I haven't been normal weight since elementary school, I
don't actually know what my ideal weight is. I've used some
calculators that put my ideal weight at 123. My doctor in high school
said I should weigh 120. With that in mind, 126 seems at the high end
of what's possible. As usual, though, between now and then, I'll focus
on reaching one mini-goal at a time.

Construction is winding down. All the big stuff and most of the little
stuff is done. There have been a few mistakes, wrong cabinet doors
ordered for example, but they're being rectified. Monday & Tuesday
will be final touchups--I'm supposed to write a punchlist this
weekend--and some minor repair work I'd contracted. Then they'll pull
up the carpet on the main floor, something they offered to do at no
charge, and let me know if my floors can be refinished or if I should
just recarpet.

One major mishap occurred this week. My house was broken into sometime
during the day on Wednesday. I noticed a few odd things when I got
home from work Wednesday evening, but didn't think too much of what I
was seeing. When you've got construction people coming in and out of
your house all the time, you kinda expect the unexpected. On Thursday
morning, though, after my carpenter arrived and I began discussing
things with him, it became more and more apparent that the weird
things weren't related at all to anyone doing work at my house on
Wednesday. In fact, no one worked inside my house on Wednesday.
Finally, when I opened the door to leave, I saw that the lockbox was
gone and the doorknob broken off. That's when everything clicked, and
I realized the weird things I'd noticed were not the result of
paranormal activity.

Turns out that the guy who had been setting my bathroom tile got fired
on Tuesday morning. On Monday, after he left and the others left, I
discovered his grinder had been left behind. At the time, I didn't
think anything of it, there are so many tools and equipment lying
around. I figure that once this guy realized he left his grinder here,
he decided to come and get it. When he saw that no one was here
working, he got angry, and decided he was entitled to retrieve his
equipment, no matter the means. Once inside, he helped himself to a
few more things than just the items that belonged to him. My digital
camera is gone, so is my DVD player, a bunch of audio CDs are missing,
and a jar of change was emptied.

I was pretty upset Thursday night, and spent much of the evening
crying. More than the loss of any material objects, I resented that
the one, truly precious thing that had been stolen was the wonderful
experience this project has been for me. Here's the amazing thing
though. All the while that I was upset and crying and being angry and
crying and grieving and crying, I was cleaning my house: vacuuming and
dusting and washing and polishing and straightening. Not eating.
Cleaning. Unless you're a messie or a flybaby (a la www.flylady.net),
you have no idea how strange and unusual this behavior is for me. I'm
going to claim a major NSV right here. You see, I tend to have two
physical response to emotions: crying or eating or both. This time,
though, instead of crying and eating, I cried and cleaned and cleaned
and cried. Eating didn't even occur to me. Even if that's a one-time
occurrence, I'm ecstatic it happened this once.

Early Friday morning, the president of the construction company came
to my house to meet me and offer his apologies and concern. I took the
rest of the day off to get my bearings again and to make sure nothing
else was missing. The company president called to ask that I send him
an itemized list of things missing and their costs. Today he's coming
by to talk with me more and to offer me payment for the items lost.
He's also making arrangements to inspect the work this guy did and to
correct anything that might be wrong with it. And he's agreed that the
only two people allowed access to my house are the carpenter and the
project manager. No more lockbox on the front door. No one else gets
in or stays here without one of them being here, if I'm not. I have to
say, the company is making things right.

After spending Friday at home, I'm all right too. I decided I wasn't
going to let that guy take anything away from this experience. Crazy
stuff happens. Some guy got angry and needed to hurt someone. My house
happened to be the handiest target. I'm going to be happy and grateful
ANYWAY. My house has been transformed beyond my imagination. My
kitchen looks better than any magazine. My bathroom looks like a
spread in the Pottery Barn catalog. My dog is well. My bike is still
here and intact. No one was hurt. All is well.

It's the best day of my life!
--
Linda P
week 62: 232/146/WW goal 145/personal goal 126?
WNM week 5: 155.6/146/145
next mini-goals: 145 (WW goal); 142 (90 lbs total loss); 141 (15 lbs
to goal)
started WW 22-Feb-2003 | 10% target: 1-May-2003
5'4" | 50 | F

have fun with your mom, Lee
Prairie Roots wrote in message
...
Going from one extreme to the other isn't right as both are unhealthy.
I'm not worried about it yet, since not eating is definitely out of
the ordinary for me. But I will watch it. Today I'm ending up about 3
points shy of 20. That's OK. Tomorrow my mom's coming over for dinner;
I'll today's banked points then.

On Sat, 1 May 2004 21:30:25 -0500, "Miss Violette"
wrote:

watch this very carefully, I do not eat when stressed and it can really
play
heck with your system, go points dense and make sure you get twenty
points,
and move on, Lee
Prairie Roots wrote in message
.. .
Thanks Connie. I just returned home from shopping to replace my
camera. That was the most distressing loss because I was sending
pictures of the work to my daughters every night. Losing that felt
like I was losing touch with them somehow.

Something very strange is going on with me. I just haven't felt like
eating lately. Like today, I ate breakfast, but got too busy with
other things to eat lunch. Now it's almost 8 pm. I'm going to have to
make myself eat something. In the past, I've eaten to relieve stress.
If I'm changing to NOT eating due to stress, I won't know what to make
of that. That's not the way I want to get rid of the last 21 lbs. I'm
fully prepared to go another 20 weeks or longer.

On Sat, 01 May 2004 14:13:20 -0400, Connie
wrote:

Oh Linda, I'm so proud of you for not letting that angry guy colour
your
great experience of getting your house redone!! And the NSV of
cleaning
when you were so upset was just incredible!!

Congrats on losing a pound this week. It's great that you have picked
your goal weight!! 20 more lbs at the rate you are going now should be
fairly quick!!

I'm celebrating Mother's Day with her a week early because I'm leaving
for Atlanta on Thursday to spend more than a week (including Mother's
Day) with my daughters and granddaughter. I hate to leave my new
rooms, but I'm suffering from granddaughter-withdrawal.

On Sun, 2 May 2004 00:25:16 -0500, "Miss Violette"
wrote:

have fun with your mom, Lee
Prairie Roots wrote in message
.. .
Going from one extreme to the other isn't right as both are unhealthy.
I'm not worried about it yet, since not eating is definitely out of
the ordinary for me. But I will watch it. Today I'm ending up about 3
points shy of 20. That's OK. Tomorrow my mom's coming over for dinner;
I'll today's banked points then.

On Sat, 1 May 2004 21:30:25 -0500, "Miss Violette"
wrote:

watch this very carefully, I do not eat when stressed and it can really
play
heck with your system, go points dense and make sure you get twenty
points,
and move on, Lee
Prairie Roots wrote in message
.. .
Thanks Connie. I just returned home from shopping to replace my
camera. That was the most distressing loss because I was sending
pictures of the work to my daughters every night. Losing that felt
like I was losing touch with them somehow.

Something very strange is going on with me. I just haven't felt like
eating lately. Like today, I ate breakfast, but got too busy with
other things to eat lunch. Now it's almost 8 pm. I'm going to have to
make myself eat something. In the past, I've eaten to relieve stress.
If I'm changing to NOT eating due to stress, I won't know what to make
of that. That's not the way I want to get rid of the last 21 lbs. I'm
fully prepared to go another 20 weeks or longer.

On Sat, 01 May 2004 14:13:20 -0400, Connie
wrote:

Oh Linda, I'm so proud of you for not letting that angry guy colour
your
great experience of getting your house redone!! And the NSV of
cleaning
when you were so upset was just incredible!!

Congrats on losing a pound this week. It's great that you have picked
your goal weight!! 20 more lbs at the rate you are going now should be
fairly quick!!